Reiterating the need for medical graduates to serve in “difficult and inaccessible” areas, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said here on Monday that there was acute shortage of health personnel in rural areas that needed to be addressed on a top priority basis. Not more than 25,000 doctors were available in primary and community health centres for a rural population of 740 million in the country, he told the first convocation of the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER).